Rev. Keith Morgan

Intro - Practices of Faith-Learning in Community

Legend has it that founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley’s faith was being challenged by doubts. “How can I preach the Christian Faith,” he asked a minister, “when I am not totally certain about my own faith?” The man supposedly responded: “Preach faith until you get it. Then preach faith because you have it.” That was good advice to a Christian plagued by doubt. “Don’t let your doubts cause you to stumble. Use your doubts to strengthen your faith.”

John Wesley was not the first Christian to doubt nor the first to discover that not all doubt is counterproductive. After all, Thomas doubted and he was one of the first disciples. He doubted, and yet through all his doubts he grew into a pillar of the early church.

I think we have shortchanged this disciple. “Doubting Thomas” we call him; and we just love to get on his case. But if we look closely at his life we realize that doubt was but the road on which he traveled as a pilgrim of faith. Thomas handled h is doubts instead of letting his doubts handle him.

Now, I say all this today not to talk about doubt, but to talk about learning. I think Thomas is the perfect model for this Practice of Learning in Community. When we look at his entire life we discover that faith is not as simple as we think, and Christian learning is not as easy as we hope. I want us to look at three different moments in Thomas’ life. They tell us a great deal about what is involved in growing as Christians through the practice of community learning.

Do you remember those tender moments around the table at the Last Supper? There we learn something very unique about Thomas. Jesus was sharing with His disciples what was about to happen. He spoke of leaving them bodily and going to prepare a place for all of them. “And when I go and prepare a place for you,” he said, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” It was a moment of glorious promise, but suddenly the mood was shattered by the voice of Thomas, saying: “Wait a minute, Lord. You are assuming too much. We don’t know the way you are going. How can we know it?”

What a contrast! All of the other disciples looked so wise and pious that it must have been embarrassing for Thomas to have acknowledged that he did not understand what Jesus was saying. But he would not let his pride hold him back in trying to learn more about the truth! This was a real strength of Thomas: he was humble enough to acknowledge his ignorance. He simply could not live with unasked questions or vague generalities. Because he wanted to understand, he was willing to take the first step and acknowledge that he did not understand, humbly asking for help.

This is the first step in learning in community and, indeed, it is an admirable quality: this humility of admitting that we do not know everything on our own. And it is probably a very difficult achievement for some of us to attain. After all, how many of us have nodded affirmatively as the teacher taught or as the employer instructed, implying that we understood everything uttered when in fact we had no earthly idea what was going on? Some of you are nodding your heads. I am afraid of what that means!

There is just enough pride in most humans to make us reluctant to seek more truth. And when left unnoticed, such pride often develops into a rigid and inflexible attitude: one that gives others the impression that we have all the answers and that there is nothing else remaining to be known. We see many examples of this dilemma every day.

Our current wave of religiosity places such an emphasis on religious certainty that there is practically no place whatsoever for doubt of any kind. “If you are really a Christian,” so many believers claim today, “you will be certain that you posses all of God’s truth there is to know.”

And with such crass inflexibility and arrogant exclusiveness, they take stands on all sorts of issues. They are against abortion or they are for abortion; and that settles it! They support prayer in public schools or they oppose prayer in public schools; no questions asked. They think God wants to destroy the homosexual or they believe God desires to defend the homosexual; and nothing else needs to be said. So convinced these Christians are, on both ends of the spectrum mind you, there is no possibility of dialogue or interaction. Somewhere these people have confused depth of commitment with rigidity of opinion. To be sure, we are called to respond with a commitment to Christ, but not with an arrogance that implies we posses all the truth there is to know!

Oh how we need to be like Thomas today! For only when we are humble enough to acknowledge we do not know everything can we ever be fortunate enough to learn anything new. And that is precisely why learning in community is such a concern in this congregation. Our ministry of education does not seek to eliminate all our doubt and transform us into religious robots. Christian learning teaches us what to do with our doubts: how to ask hard questions that make us transcend simplistic answers; how to search for more truth and more insight every day of our lives in our quest to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Community learning is not the veiling of Christians with all of God’s truth. Community learning is the unveiling of the ignorance of all Christians when it comes to God’s truth. It points out God’s wisdom for their lives. It happened to Thomas and it strengthened his life as a disciple. It can happen to everyone of us.

Humble enough to acknowledge his ignorance: what a great quality! But that is not all. There is more required. Let us look at Thomas again.

At another gathering of the early Christians the disciples, in breathless wonder, told Thomas that the Lord had arisen and appeared to them. Thomas shook his head in disbelief and said emphatically that until he saw for himself the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and the wound in His side, he would not believe it.

His reaction has often been regarded as sinful skepticism, but I think it was precisely the opposite. Thomas realized that no one has the right simply to accept faith statements out of thin air. He knew there must be some kind of evidence to support every truth. The other disciples had encountered the risen Christ as well as the women who had come back from the tomb. Thomas had encountered nothing like that. He would not believe until he had confronted a similar experience. Thomas was thorough enough to base his faith on personally authenticated experience.

We can be no different. After all, the Christian Faith begins, not with an intellectual acceptance of dogma, nor with the passive endorsement of some creedal statement. The Christian Faith begins with a personal encounter with the risen Christ: a relationship that makes God’s truth a reality in our lives. It is only after such an experience that our faith can be strengthened by the testimonies of other believers.

It is practically impossible to find the real truth if only relying on the interpretation of others. This is graphically illustrated by the story of a certain nineteenth century Mexican bank robber named Jorge Rodriguez. For years he robbed banks in Texas and then quickly slipped back across the border. But one day a Texas Ranger saw him go into a cantina for refreshment and decided to make a move.

The Ranger went inside, placed a pistol to Jorge’s head, and said: “I know who you are, Jorge Rodriguez, and I have come to get back all the money that you have stolen from banks in Texas. Unless you give it to me, I am going to blow your brains out.”

There was one difficulty, though. Jorge did not speak English and the Texas Ranger was not versed in Spanish. However, a small boy came up, said he was bilingual, and offered to help. The youngster asked Jorge where the money was and told him what would happen if he refused to confess. Jorge answered back: “Tell the big Texas Ranger that I have not spent a cent of the money. If he will go to the town well, face north, count down five stones, he will find a loose one there. Pull it out and all the money is behind there. Please tell him quickly.” The little translator got a solemn look on his face and said to the Ranger in perfect English: “Jorge Rodriguez is a brave man. He says he is ready to die.” You just cannot encounter the truth when you rely only on someone else’s interpretation!

Thomas was not willing to accept the faith of others. He insisted on experiencing it himself. That is our challenge as well. And that is why Community Learning is an imperative. Our faith comes alive, not just through teaching biblical and theological data, but through creating an arena within which individual Christians can encounter the faith for themselves.

I hope as you listen to this sermon that it will touch you. But it will accomplish that, not as you listen to me, but as my words trigger something inside of you that allows you to encounter firsthand that truth I am trying to share. It is only when we share and discuss with others our thoughts and ideas about issues and topics that we begin to uncover truth. I believe it requires interaction with two or more people for truth and knowledge to grow and to be experienced. And for our Community Learning to be faithful to its mission, it must enable all Christians to experience Christ firsthand in their lives and to provide an arena for discussion and dialogue to take place and where doubts and questions can be aired.

Do not get angry with Thomas. He was not doubting the resurrection of Jesus. He was merely holding out for a personal experience with the risen Christ himself. What is religious belief if not authenticated by personal experience?

But there is still more. We must turn to Thomas one more time.

Eight days after the disciples told Thomas of Jesus’ presence in their midst, the Savior appeared again. This time Thomas was there. Prior to his direct encounter with the risen Christ, he feared the news of the resurrection was almost like a dream, too good to be true. But on that afternoon when he stood before the Christ of the open tomb, Thomas realized the truth of Easter for his own life. And as a result, a tremendous change took place in his life with regard to the Christian Faith. “Thomas the Doubter” became “Thomas the Defender.”

From that moment on he served as a major force in the life of the disciples, prominent in the later election of deacons as well as in the deployment of workers throughout the world. As a matter of fact, legend has it that Thomas became the first Christian missionary to India. Why? The answer underscores still a third characteristic of Thomas: he was honest enough to change his mind in light of new truth. His faith was not weakened by doubt; it was tempered and strengthened by it!

Thomas never stopped doubting, not because he refused to believe, but because he wanted to believe more. And, when his doubts uncovered more insight into God’s presence in his life, he was honest and open enough to change his life and his mind in accordance with such new light. Thomas was so open to new truth be was constantly in the process of changing: the way he thought and the way he lived.

What would happen in our lives if that was true for us? If we were as honest with our doubts as Thomas, and as willing to change with the appearance of new truth as Thomas, our lives would be more vibrant and visionary.

Now do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting there is no place for taking stands or professing a belief. I agree with William Barclay who said, “While there is great value in an open mind, there is no benefit from a mind that is open on both ends!”

God expects us to take positions on all issues, but always with an openness to new truth, greater insight, and more advanced discoveries. That is why every member of this church should be in some kind of study group of two or more people. A Sunday School class or Bible study or discussion group where we can profess what we believe in the context of encountering what others believe. And when that happens we often realize that we have not done as much “home work” as we once thought. Through others we are often changed.

We Christians talk a great deal about conversion, the turning around of lives through the gift of God’s love. But do you know what the Greek word for conversion literally means? It translates “to change your mind.” This is what happens when God’s truth becomes a part of our lives. We are saved from living under false insights. We are saved because we change our minds and lives to conform to God’s new revelation of truth.

Reinhold Niebuhr, the great Christian ethicist, once lamented he had written one of his early books. Why was he sorry? In light of his own growth, he had changed his mind. He had been converted to another perspective. Where have you refused to change your mind on an issue simply because you have been reluctant to admit there might be more of God’s truth than you have perceived? God is always faithful to offer us more truth. The issue is determined by whether we are honest enough to change in light of that new truth. Thomas was and it turned his life around. It will do the same for us. That is, if we are honest enough to change our mind in light of new truth.

The practice is: Learning in Community. The Christian Faith begins, not with creeds we passively profess, but with deeds we actively perform. It is through doubt and searching and learning, not through certainty and arrogance, that we grow in faith and devotion to Jesus Christ.

If you are not a part of a learning group here in the church, I challenge you to become a part of one soon. If you cannot find one that you feel like you can join, come see me and we’ll start a new one. Learning, discussing, changing ideas about the Bible and faith will move us along the road of discipleship. It is a practice we need to be a part of.